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My Gator Blades just arrived for my i1050!:bannana: See pics below.
FYI here's a posting that describes how I found the right part number in my case (Oregon pn 91-938) and where I bought them from. Paid $35 total for 3 including shipping.
I took off the deck, cleaned it up, put on the Gators and tried em out. Lawn was at about 4" (a few days of rain recently lately kept me from keeping it lower) and I cut it back to my usual 2-3/4".
They did a nice job. Aside from cutting clippings to nice small bits, I think the type of airflow they produce also helped the grass blades stand up straighter for a more even cut vs my factory blades (which in fact also had lift tabs, just not the gator style).
I kept the mulch plug installed, ran the engine at 3400 RPM and mowed at about 1/3 the tractor's top ground speed (6 mph) -- so about 2 mph. I did try some faster bursts and it didn't seem to reduce the cut quality noticeably or leave visible clippings, but I like meandering along anyway so I did most of the lawn at a leisurely pace.
The sound produced when the deck is running with the gators is a little more pronounced than with the factory blades (hi-lift), but not by much. I like to think it's a little more aggressive sounding now, but that's probably just my imagination.
Seems most others at MTF have had good luck with gator blades too. Add one more to the list!
Here's what they looked like out of the box. My spindles require the 6-pointed star hole type, but note that the hole in the gators is not exactly 6-pointed.. more like a star-hex hybrid. So if you don't see a true 6-pointed star hole pattern when you're looking at gators in a catalog, don't fret.. this tri-lobed hole shape works fine for 6-pointed star spindles.
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Closeup of the label:
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Here's what the ends of the blades look like. I've got two blades next to each other, one flipped over so you can see both the lift tabs and the cutting surface. The cutting edge was dull to start so I did have to make a pass on the bench grinder first before installing.
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Here's what they looked like installed. Yeah, the deck is still a little crud-caked but it was a *lot* worse when I first took it off (see this post about mysterious white fuzz that was growing under there):
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And here's a closeup installed:
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Can't wait for fall (I get a LOT of leaves) to put these to work shredding those buggers too. Should help me pack even more into the Cyclone Rake before having to unload.
FYI here's a posting that describes how I found the right part number in my case (Oregon pn 91-938) and where I bought them from. Paid $35 total for 3 including shipping.
I took off the deck, cleaned it up, put on the Gators and tried em out. Lawn was at about 4" (a few days of rain recently lately kept me from keeping it lower) and I cut it back to my usual 2-3/4".
They did a nice job. Aside from cutting clippings to nice small bits, I think the type of airflow they produce also helped the grass blades stand up straighter for a more even cut vs my factory blades (which in fact also had lift tabs, just not the gator style).
I kept the mulch plug installed, ran the engine at 3400 RPM and mowed at about 1/3 the tractor's top ground speed (6 mph) -- so about 2 mph. I did try some faster bursts and it didn't seem to reduce the cut quality noticeably or leave visible clippings, but I like meandering along anyway so I did most of the lawn at a leisurely pace.
The sound produced when the deck is running with the gators is a little more pronounced than with the factory blades (hi-lift), but not by much. I like to think it's a little more aggressive sounding now, but that's probably just my imagination.
Seems most others at MTF have had good luck with gator blades too. Add one more to the list!
Here's what they looked like out of the box. My spindles require the 6-pointed star hole type, but note that the hole in the gators is not exactly 6-pointed.. more like a star-hex hybrid. So if you don't see a true 6-pointed star hole pattern when you're looking at gators in a catalog, don't fret.. this tri-lobed hole shape works fine for 6-pointed star spindles.
Closeup of the label:
Here's what the ends of the blades look like. I've got two blades next to each other, one flipped over so you can see both the lift tabs and the cutting surface. The cutting edge was dull to start so I did have to make a pass on the bench grinder first before installing.
Here's what they looked like installed. Yeah, the deck is still a little crud-caked but it was a *lot* worse when I first took it off (see this post about mysterious white fuzz that was growing under there):
And here's a closeup installed:
Can't wait for fall (I get a LOT of leaves) to put these to work shredding those buggers too. Should help me pack even more into the Cyclone Rake before having to unload.
